Environmental Issues in the Middle Islamic Period (ca. CE 915-1517)
Keywords:
Idea of nature, Water engineering, Food supply, Natural hazards
Abstract
This study presents succinctly medieval Arabic accounts of landscape, water supply, nature and natural hazards. This data enables us to reconstruct humanity's efforts to make use of natural resources and its reaction to calamities. The sources cast light on governors’ engineering efforts in support of farming, as well as their reaction in periods of shortages. The political implications of famines encouraged them to carry out a moral economy. Affluence enhanced their image as virtuous rulers. Reports on constructions of granaries and supply of cereals illuminate these political dimensions of rudimentary environmental policy. Contemporary Muslim thinkers and politicians often highlight these historical accounts in order to support arguments about an Islamic ecological agenda. Their suggestion can serve as a starting point to an endemic discourse regarding modern times climate challenges.
References
Abū Dīb (Abu Deeb), K. (2007) al-Adab al-ʿajāʾibī wal-ʿālam al-gharāʾibī fī kitāb al-ʿAẓamah wa-fann al-sard al-ʿArabī. Beirut: Daral-Saqi.
Abudanh, F. and Twaissi, S. (2010) Innovation or technology immigration? The Qanat systems in the regions of Udhruh and Maʾan in Southern Jordan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 360: 67-87.
Akasoy, A. (2007) The Man-made disaster: Fire in cities in the Medieval Middle East. Historical Social Research, 32/3: 75-87.
Akasoy, A. (2009) Interpreting earthquakes in Medieval Islamic texts. in Mauch, C. and Pfister, C. (eds.), Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses Case Studies toward a Global Environmental History. London: Lexington Books, 183-196.
Akasoy, A. (2009) Islamic Attitudes to disasters in the Middle Ages: A comparison of earthquakes and plagues. The Medieval History Journal,10: 388-410.
Amiran, D.H.K., Arieh, E. and Turcotte, T. (1994) Earthquakes in Israel and adjacent areas: Macro-seismic observations since 100 B.C.E., Israel Exploration Journal, 44/3: 260-305.
Amitai, R. (2005) The conquest of Arsuf by Baybars: Political and military aspects, Mamluk Studies Review, 9: 61–63.
Anabsi, G. (2008) Popular beliefs as reflected in ‘Merits of Palestine and Syria’ (Fadaʾil al-Sham) Literature: Pilgrimage ceremonies and customs in the Mamluk and Ottoman Periods, Journal of Islamic Studies, 19:1: 59–70.
Avni, G. (2018) Early Islamic irrigated farmsteads and the spread of qanats in Eurasia, Water History, 10 313–338.
Baron, H. and Daim, F. (eds.) (2017) A Most Pleasant Scene and an Inexhaustible Resource Steps Towards a Byzantine Environmental History (Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums.
van Bavel, B., Buringh, E. and Dijkman, J. (2017) Mills, cranes, and the great divergence: The use of immovable capital goods in western Europe and the Middle East, Ninth to Sixteenth centuries. The Economic History Review: 1-24.
Behrens-Abouseif, D. (1992) Gardens in Islamic Egypt, Der Islam 6: 302-312.
van Berkel, M. (2017) Waqf documents on the provision of water in Mamluk Egypt, in van Berkel, M., Buskens, L. and Sijpesteijn P. M. (eds.). Legal Documents as Sources for the History of Muslim Societies Studies in Honour of Rudolph Peters Leiden: Brill, 231-244.
van Berkel, M. (2022) Who owns and controls the water? Water management in Mamluk Cairo, in Weeda, C., Stein, R. and Sicking, L. (eds.), Communities, Environment and Regulation in the Pre-modern World: Essays in Honour of Peter Hoppenbrouwers .Berpols), 135-145.
Berlekamp, P. (2011) Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam. Yale University Press.
Borsch, S. J. (2000) Nile floods and the irrigation system in fifteenth-century Egypt, Mamluk Studies Review 4: 131-145.
Borsch, S. (2017) The Black Death and the human impact on the environment. in Schenk G. J. (ed.), Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe. Cambridge University Press, 93-106.
Bosanquet, A. (2020) Minding their Place Space and Religious Hierarchy in Ibn al-Qayyim’s Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma, Leiden: Brill.
Boyer, D. (2024) Horizontal watermill chronologies based on 14c dating of organics in mortars: A case study from Jarash, Jordan, Radiocarbon 66/1: 205–248.
Braemer, F. Genequand, D. Dumond Maridat, C. Blanc, P.-M. Dentzer, J.-M. Gazagne D. and Wech, P. (2009) Long-term management of water in the Central Levant: The Hawran case (Syria), World Archaeology 41/1: 36-57.
Brown, P. J. and van Berkel, M. (2024) Water provision in Early Islamic cities: A multidisciplinary approach to urban water governance. in Rose, E., Flierman, R., and de Bruin-van de Beek, M. (eds.), City, Citizen, Citizenship, 400–1500: A Comparative Approach. Springer Nature,75-102.
Burke, E. III (2009) Islam at the center: Technological complexes and the roots of modernity. Journal of World History 20/2: 173-175.
Burke, E. III (2009) The transformation of the Middle Eastern environment, 1500 B.C.E.–2000 C.E., in Burke E. III and Pomeranz K. (eds.), The Environment and World History. University of California Press, 83-88.
Büssow-Schmitz, S. (2017) Fanaʾ and Fasad: Perceptions and concepts of crises and disasters in Fourteenth-Century Egypt. in Schenk, G. J. (ed.), Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe. Cambridge University Press, 81-92.
Creswell, K. A. C. (1932/1969) Early Muslim Architecture. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Cytryn-Silverman, K. (2010) The Road Inns (Khāns) in Bilād Al-Shām. BAR International Series.
Dafni, A. (2006) On the typology and the worship status of sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2/26.
Daiber, V. (2017) The 1173/1759 Earthquake in Damascus and the continuation of architectural tradition. in Schenk, G. J. (ed.), Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe. Springer, 269-294.
Davis, D. K. and Burke E. III (,2011) (eds.) Environmental Imaginaries of the Middle East and North Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press.
Dien, M. I. (1997) Islam and the Environment: Theory and practice. Journal of Beliefs and Values, 18/1: 47-57.
Donald, R. H. (1993) Islamic Science and Engineering. Edinburgh University Press
Elad, A. (1999) The Southern Golan in the Early Muslim Period—The Significance of two newly discovered milestones of ʿAbd al-Malik, Der Islam 76: 33-88.
English, P. W. (1968) The origin and spread of Qanats in the Old World. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 112/3: 170-181.
Esmeir, S. (2020) How Seismology received Islamic theology, Comparative Studies of South Asia. Africa and the Middle East, 40: 329-345.
Franz, K. (, 2021) Handlist of stations of the Ayyubid and Mamluk communication systems, in Levanoni, A. (ed.) Egypt and Syria under the Mamluk Rule: Political, Social and Cultural Aspects. Leiden: Brill
Frenkel, Y. (2014) An introduction to the environmental history of the Mamlūk Sultanate. History Compass, 12/11: 866–878.
Frenkel, Y. (2019) Fires, earthquakes, and floods: The influence of extreme events on Mamluk cities. in Schneller, D. und Lassau, G. (Hrsg.), Erdbeben, Feuer, Wasser und andere Katastrophen Ihr Einfluss auf die Stadtentwicklung und Stadtgestalt im Spätmittelalter und in der Frühen Neuzeit, Bern: Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte.
Frenkel, Y. (2014) Mapping the Mamluk Sultanate. in Conermann, S. (ed.), History and Society during the Mamlūk Period (1250-1517), Studies of the Annemarie Schimmel Research College, Bonn University Press, 37-60.
Frenkel, Y. (2022) The Management of water in Fourteenth-Century Damascus. in Levanoni, A. (ed.) Egypt and Syria under Mamluk Rule Political, Social and Cultural Aspects, Leiden, Brill, 235-254.
Goblot, H. (1979) Les qanats: Une technique d’acquisition de l'eau. De Gruuyter.
Gorzalczany, A. (2021) The Gezer aqueduct to Umayyad Ramla. in Petersen, A. and Pringle, D. (eds.), Ramla: City of Muslim Palestine, 715-1917 Studies in History, Archaeology and Architecture Archeopress, 64-73.
Greenberg, R., Tal, O. and Daʿadli. T. (eds.) (2014) Bet Yerah III: HellenistIc Philoteria and IslamIc al-Sinnabra -The 1933–1986 and 2007–2013 Excavations. Israel Antiquities Authority. In Hebrew
Guidoboni, E. and Comastri, A. (1997) The large earthquake of 8 August 1303 in Crete: Seismic scenario and Tsunami in the Mediterranean area. Journal of Seismology, 1: 55–72.
Guidoboni, E., Bernardini, F., Comastri, A. and Boschi, E. (2004) The large earthquake on 29 June 1170 (Syria, Lebanon, and central southern Turkey). Journal of Geophysical Research, 109: 1-21.
Hämeen-Anttila, J. (2006) The Last Pagans of Iraq - Ibn Wahshiyya and his Nabatean Agriculture. Brill.
von Hees, S. (2017) ’The Great Fire in Cairo in 1321’: Interactions between nature and society. in Schenk, G. J. (ed.) Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe, Springer, 307-326.
Izdebski, A. and Mulryan, M. (eds.) (2018) Environment and Society in the Long Late Antiquity. Brill.
Jomard, F. (1828) Description de l'Egypte ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égytpe pendant l'expédition de l'Armée française. Paris: Panckoucke, t. 23 (Histoire Naturelle Zoologie).
Levanoni, A. (2005) Food and cooking during the Mamluk Era: Social and Political Implications. Mamluk Studies Review 9/2: 201-222.
Levanoni, A. (2021) Urban water management in the Medieval Middle East: The Case of Mamluk Cairo. in Levanoni, A. (ed.), Egypt and Syria under Mamluk Rule Political, Social and Cultural Aspects, Brill: 255-276.
Levanoni, A. (2008) Water supply in Medieval Middle Eastern cities: The Case of Cairo, al-Masaq 20/2: 179-205.
Lightfoot, D. R. (1997) Qanats in the Levant: Hydraulic technology at the periphery of Early Empires, Technology and Culture 38/2: 432-451.
Livingston, J. W. (1971) Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth Century defence against astrological divination and alchemical transmutation. Journal of the American Oriental Society 91/1: 96-103.
Miquel, A. (1975) La Geographie humaine dumonde musulman jusqu’au milieu du 11e siecle vol. 2– Geographie arabe et represetation du monde: la terre et l’etranger. Paris: Mouton.
Nol, H. (2015) The fertile desert: Agriculture and copper industry in Early Islamic Arava (Arabah), Palestine Exploration Quarterly 147/1: 49-68.
Omar, I. (1993) Khiḍr in the Islamic tradition. The Muslim World, 83/3-4: 279-294.
Pradines, S. and Sher R. K. (2016) Fāṭimid gardens: Archaeological and historical perspectives. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 79/3: 1-30.
Rabbat, N. O. (2004) A brief history of green spaces in Cairo. in Bianca S. and Jodidio, P. (eds.), Cairo: Revitalising a Historic Metropolis. Geneva: The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 43-53.
Raphael, K. and Amitai, R. (2023) Bridges and roads to Mamluk Gaza and beyond. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 54: 133-180.
Rayne, L. (2020) Early Islamic water management in the hinterland of Raqqa. in Lawrence, D., Altaweel, M. and Graham P. (eds.), New Agendas in Remote Sensing and Landscape Archaeology in the Near East, Studies in Honour of Tony J. Wilkinson. Archaeopress, 305-320.
Sadan, J. (1976) Le Mobilier au porches orient medieval. Leiden: Brill.
Schimmel, A. (1994) Deciphering the signs of God: A phenomenological approach to Islam. SUNY.
Schimmel, A. (2003) Islam and the wonders of Creation: The Animal Kingdom. London: al-Furqan.
Sharon, M. (1966) An Arabic inscription from the time of the Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, BSOAS 29: 367-72.
Shehada, H. A. (2013) Mamluks and Animals Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam. Leiden: Brill.
Shoshan, B. (2011) Mini-dramas by the water: On irrigation rights and disputes in Fifteenth-Century Damascus. in Roxani, E.M. et al. (eds.), Historians of the Middle East: Studies in Middle Eastern Society, Economy and Law in Honor of A. L. Udovitch. Brill, 233-244.
Silverstein, A. J. (2007) Postal Systems in the pre-modern Islamic World. Cambridge University Press.
Stowasser, Karl (trans.) (2002) The Book of Exhortations and Useful Lessons in Dealing with Topography and Historical Remains. Brill.
Sussman, V. (2017) Late Roman to Late Byzantine/Early Islamic Period Lamps in the Holy Land: The Collection of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Archeopress
Walker, B. J. (2017) The struggle over water: Evaluating the ‘Water Culture’ of Syrian peasants under Mamluk rule. in Ben-Bassat, Y. (ed.) Amalia Levanoni Festschrift. Leiden: Brill, 287-310.
Wittfogel, K. A. (1957) Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Primary Sources
al-ʿAjlūnī, Abū al-Fidāʼ Ismāʿīl al-Shāfiʿī (1087-1161/1667-1749), Taḥrīk al-Silsila fī-mā yataʻallaqu bial-zalzalah (Amman: Dar Ibn al-Jawzi, 1425/2004).
al-Aṣbahānī, Abū al-Shaykh (274-369/887-979), Kitāb al-ʿaẓamah [The Book of the Sublime/God’s Majesty] ed. Muṣṭafá ʻĀshūr (Cairo: Maktabat al-Quran, 1409/1990).
Ibn Abī Ḥajala al-Tilmisanī (725-776/1325-1375), Sukkardān al-Sulṭān [al-Malik al-Nāṣir] ed. Muḥammad al-Ḥuǧairī (Beirut: Dār al-Fārābī/Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022).
Ibn al-Baytar (593-646/1197-1248) see A. M. Cabo-González, Ibn al-Bayṭār, in Encyclopaedia of Islam Three Online (2018). Ibn Faḍl Allah al-ʿUmari, Shihab al-Dīn Ahmad (700-750/1301-1349), Masalik al-Absar fi mamlik al-amsar ed. K. Jaburi (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 2010).
Ibn Fahd al-Ḥalabi, Maḥmūd ibn Salmān (644-725/1246-1325), Ḥusn al-tawassul fī ṣināʿat al-tarassul [(The Excellence of Achievement in the Art of Letter Writing)] (Baghdad, 1980).
Ibn al-Furāt, Nāṣir al-Dīn Muūammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm (735-807/1334-1405). Tāʾrīkh al-duwwal wal-mulūk [David Cook (trans.), Baybars’ Successors: Ibn al-Furāt on Qalāwūn and al-Ashraf (Routledge, 2020).]
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalani, Shihab al-Dīn Ahmad b. ʿAli (773-852/1372-1449), al-Zahr al-naḍir fī khāl al-Khaḍir (Kuwait, 1425\2004).
Ibn Iyās, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Ḥanafī (852-930/1448-1524). Badāʾiʿ al-zuhūr fī waqāʾiʿ al-duhūr [Die Chronik des Ibn Ijas (The Amazing Flowers about the Events of the Times)] ed. M. Mustafa (Cairo, Dar al-Kutub,1429/2008) 5 vol.
Ibn Kathīr, Abū al-Fida Ismāʿīl (701-774/1301-1373). al-Bidāya wa-al-nihāya ed. ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Cairo: Hajar, 1998).
Ibn Kathīr, Abū al-Fida Ismāʿīl (701-774/1301-1373). Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ ed. B. M. Ibrahim (Cairo, 2001).
Ibn Naẓīf al-Ḥamawī, Abū al-Faḍāʾil Muḥammad b. ʿAlī (650/1250). al-Tāʾrīkh al-Manṣūrī: Talkhīs al-kashf wal-bayān fī ḥawādith al-zamān (AH 595-631) [David Cook (trans.), Ibn Naẓīf’s World-History Al-Tāʾrīkh al-Manṣūrī (Routledge, 2021).]
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Abū Bakr (691-751/ 1292-1350), Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda wa-manshūr wilāyat al-ʿlm wal-irāda ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥman b, al-Qaʾid (Dar ʿĀlam al-Fawaʾid, 2011).
Ibn Taymiyya, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm al-Ḥaranī (661-728/1263-1328). Kitāb al-ziyāra ed. Sayf al-Dīn al-Kātib (Beirut: Maktabat al-hayat, 1400/1980).
Ibn Taymiyya, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalim al-Ḥaranī (661-728/1263-1328). al-Ḥisba fī al-islām au waẓīfat al-ḥukūma al-islāmiyya (Beirut: Dar al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya, 1992),
Ibn Waḥshiyah, Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Kasdānī (318/930-931). al-Filāḥa al-nabaṭiyya [L’Agriculture Nabateenne tradution en arabe attribuée à Ibn Waḥšiyya (IV/Xe siècle)] ed. T. Fahd (Damas: IF, 1995).
al-Maqrīzī, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī (766/1364-845/1441). al-Maqāṣid al-saniyyah li-maʿrifat al-aǧsām al-maʿdiniyyah ed. Fabian Käs (Leiden: Brill, 2015).
al-Maqrīzī, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī (766/1364-845/1441). al-Sulūk li-maʿrifat duwal al-mulūk eds. M. M. Ziyāda and ʿAshur (Cairo: Matbaʿat Dār al-Kutub, 1934-73; 1427/2007).
al-Muqaddasī, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Bashsharī (completed his book 375-378/985-988). Aḥsan al-taqasim fī maʿrifat al-aqalim ed. De Goeje (BGA 3, Leiden, 1906/1967).
Qurʾān= The Koran Interpreted - a Translation by A. J. Arberry (London: George Allen and Unwin; London; 1955).
al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥman (849-911/1445-1505). Kashf al-Ṣalṣalah ʿan waṣf al-zalzalah ed. Abd al-Rahman A. al-Fariwani (al-Madina, 1404/1984).
al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥman (849-911/1445-1505). al-Hayʾa al-sanīya fī al-hayʾa al-sunnīya (Beirut, 2006).
Nāsir-i Khusraw (1004-ca. 1088), Book of travels trans. Wheeler M. Thackston Jr. (Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 2001).
Usama Ibn Munqidh (488-584/1095-1188), Kitāb al-ʿIʾtibār trans. Philip K. Hitti, An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh (New York, reprinted Columbia University Press, 2000).
Abudanh, F. and Twaissi, S. (2010) Innovation or technology immigration? The Qanat systems in the regions of Udhruh and Maʾan in Southern Jordan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 360: 67-87.
Akasoy, A. (2007) The Man-made disaster: Fire in cities in the Medieval Middle East. Historical Social Research, 32/3: 75-87.
Akasoy, A. (2009) Interpreting earthquakes in Medieval Islamic texts. in Mauch, C. and Pfister, C. (eds.), Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses Case Studies toward a Global Environmental History. London: Lexington Books, 183-196.
Akasoy, A. (2009) Islamic Attitudes to disasters in the Middle Ages: A comparison of earthquakes and plagues. The Medieval History Journal,10: 388-410.
Amiran, D.H.K., Arieh, E. and Turcotte, T. (1994) Earthquakes in Israel and adjacent areas: Macro-seismic observations since 100 B.C.E., Israel Exploration Journal, 44/3: 260-305.
Amitai, R. (2005) The conquest of Arsuf by Baybars: Political and military aspects, Mamluk Studies Review, 9: 61–63.
Anabsi, G. (2008) Popular beliefs as reflected in ‘Merits of Palestine and Syria’ (Fadaʾil al-Sham) Literature: Pilgrimage ceremonies and customs in the Mamluk and Ottoman Periods, Journal of Islamic Studies, 19:1: 59–70.
Avni, G. (2018) Early Islamic irrigated farmsteads and the spread of qanats in Eurasia, Water History, 10 313–338.
Baron, H. and Daim, F. (eds.) (2017) A Most Pleasant Scene and an Inexhaustible Resource Steps Towards a Byzantine Environmental History (Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums.
van Bavel, B., Buringh, E. and Dijkman, J. (2017) Mills, cranes, and the great divergence: The use of immovable capital goods in western Europe and the Middle East, Ninth to Sixteenth centuries. The Economic History Review: 1-24.
Behrens-Abouseif, D. (1992) Gardens in Islamic Egypt, Der Islam 6: 302-312.
van Berkel, M. (2017) Waqf documents on the provision of water in Mamluk Egypt, in van Berkel, M., Buskens, L. and Sijpesteijn P. M. (eds.). Legal Documents as Sources for the History of Muslim Societies Studies in Honour of Rudolph Peters Leiden: Brill, 231-244.
van Berkel, M. (2022) Who owns and controls the water? Water management in Mamluk Cairo, in Weeda, C., Stein, R. and Sicking, L. (eds.), Communities, Environment and Regulation in the Pre-modern World: Essays in Honour of Peter Hoppenbrouwers .Berpols), 135-145.
Berlekamp, P. (2011) Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam. Yale University Press.
Borsch, S. J. (2000) Nile floods and the irrigation system in fifteenth-century Egypt, Mamluk Studies Review 4: 131-145.
Borsch, S. (2017) The Black Death and the human impact on the environment. in Schenk G. J. (ed.), Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe. Cambridge University Press, 93-106.
Bosanquet, A. (2020) Minding their Place Space and Religious Hierarchy in Ibn al-Qayyim’s Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma, Leiden: Brill.
Boyer, D. (2024) Horizontal watermill chronologies based on 14c dating of organics in mortars: A case study from Jarash, Jordan, Radiocarbon 66/1: 205–248.
Braemer, F. Genequand, D. Dumond Maridat, C. Blanc, P.-M. Dentzer, J.-M. Gazagne D. and Wech, P. (2009) Long-term management of water in the Central Levant: The Hawran case (Syria), World Archaeology 41/1: 36-57.
Brown, P. J. and van Berkel, M. (2024) Water provision in Early Islamic cities: A multidisciplinary approach to urban water governance. in Rose, E., Flierman, R., and de Bruin-van de Beek, M. (eds.), City, Citizen, Citizenship, 400–1500: A Comparative Approach. Springer Nature,75-102.
Burke, E. III (2009) Islam at the center: Technological complexes and the roots of modernity. Journal of World History 20/2: 173-175.
Burke, E. III (2009) The transformation of the Middle Eastern environment, 1500 B.C.E.–2000 C.E., in Burke E. III and Pomeranz K. (eds.), The Environment and World History. University of California Press, 83-88.
Büssow-Schmitz, S. (2017) Fanaʾ and Fasad: Perceptions and concepts of crises and disasters in Fourteenth-Century Egypt. in Schenk, G. J. (ed.), Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe. Cambridge University Press, 81-92.
Creswell, K. A. C. (1932/1969) Early Muslim Architecture. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Cytryn-Silverman, K. (2010) The Road Inns (Khāns) in Bilād Al-Shām. BAR International Series.
Dafni, A. (2006) On the typology and the worship status of sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2/26.
Daiber, V. (2017) The 1173/1759 Earthquake in Damascus and the continuation of architectural tradition. in Schenk, G. J. (ed.), Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe. Springer, 269-294.
Davis, D. K. and Burke E. III (,2011) (eds.) Environmental Imaginaries of the Middle East and North Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press.
Dien, M. I. (1997) Islam and the Environment: Theory and practice. Journal of Beliefs and Values, 18/1: 47-57.
Donald, R. H. (1993) Islamic Science and Engineering. Edinburgh University Press
Elad, A. (1999) The Southern Golan in the Early Muslim Period—The Significance of two newly discovered milestones of ʿAbd al-Malik, Der Islam 76: 33-88.
English, P. W. (1968) The origin and spread of Qanats in the Old World. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 112/3: 170-181.
Esmeir, S. (2020) How Seismology received Islamic theology, Comparative Studies of South Asia. Africa and the Middle East, 40: 329-345.
Franz, K. (, 2021) Handlist of stations of the Ayyubid and Mamluk communication systems, in Levanoni, A. (ed.) Egypt and Syria under the Mamluk Rule: Political, Social and Cultural Aspects. Leiden: Brill
Frenkel, Y. (2014) An introduction to the environmental history of the Mamlūk Sultanate. History Compass, 12/11: 866–878.
Frenkel, Y. (2019) Fires, earthquakes, and floods: The influence of extreme events on Mamluk cities. in Schneller, D. und Lassau, G. (Hrsg.), Erdbeben, Feuer, Wasser und andere Katastrophen Ihr Einfluss auf die Stadtentwicklung und Stadtgestalt im Spätmittelalter und in der Frühen Neuzeit, Bern: Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte.
Frenkel, Y. (2014) Mapping the Mamluk Sultanate. in Conermann, S. (ed.), History and Society during the Mamlūk Period (1250-1517), Studies of the Annemarie Schimmel Research College, Bonn University Press, 37-60.
Frenkel, Y. (2022) The Management of water in Fourteenth-Century Damascus. in Levanoni, A. (ed.) Egypt and Syria under Mamluk Rule Political, Social and Cultural Aspects, Leiden, Brill, 235-254.
Goblot, H. (1979) Les qanats: Une technique d’acquisition de l'eau. De Gruuyter.
Gorzalczany, A. (2021) The Gezer aqueduct to Umayyad Ramla. in Petersen, A. and Pringle, D. (eds.), Ramla: City of Muslim Palestine, 715-1917 Studies in History, Archaeology and Architecture Archeopress, 64-73.
Greenberg, R., Tal, O. and Daʿadli. T. (eds.) (2014) Bet Yerah III: HellenistIc Philoteria and IslamIc al-Sinnabra -The 1933–1986 and 2007–2013 Excavations. Israel Antiquities Authority. In Hebrew
Guidoboni, E. and Comastri, A. (1997) The large earthquake of 8 August 1303 in Crete: Seismic scenario and Tsunami in the Mediterranean area. Journal of Seismology, 1: 55–72.
Guidoboni, E., Bernardini, F., Comastri, A. and Boschi, E. (2004) The large earthquake on 29 June 1170 (Syria, Lebanon, and central southern Turkey). Journal of Geophysical Research, 109: 1-21.
Hämeen-Anttila, J. (2006) The Last Pagans of Iraq - Ibn Wahshiyya and his Nabatean Agriculture. Brill.
von Hees, S. (2017) ’The Great Fire in Cairo in 1321’: Interactions between nature and society. in Schenk, G. J. (ed.) Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe, Springer, 307-326.
Izdebski, A. and Mulryan, M. (eds.) (2018) Environment and Society in the Long Late Antiquity. Brill.
Jomard, F. (1828) Description de l'Egypte ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égytpe pendant l'expédition de l'Armée française. Paris: Panckoucke, t. 23 (Histoire Naturelle Zoologie).
Levanoni, A. (2005) Food and cooking during the Mamluk Era: Social and Political Implications. Mamluk Studies Review 9/2: 201-222.
Levanoni, A. (2021) Urban water management in the Medieval Middle East: The Case of Mamluk Cairo. in Levanoni, A. (ed.), Egypt and Syria under Mamluk Rule Political, Social and Cultural Aspects, Brill: 255-276.
Levanoni, A. (2008) Water supply in Medieval Middle Eastern cities: The Case of Cairo, al-Masaq 20/2: 179-205.
Lightfoot, D. R. (1997) Qanats in the Levant: Hydraulic technology at the periphery of Early Empires, Technology and Culture 38/2: 432-451.
Livingston, J. W. (1971) Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth Century defence against astrological divination and alchemical transmutation. Journal of the American Oriental Society 91/1: 96-103.
Miquel, A. (1975) La Geographie humaine dumonde musulman jusqu’au milieu du 11e siecle vol. 2– Geographie arabe et represetation du monde: la terre et l’etranger. Paris: Mouton.
Nol, H. (2015) The fertile desert: Agriculture and copper industry in Early Islamic Arava (Arabah), Palestine Exploration Quarterly 147/1: 49-68.
Omar, I. (1993) Khiḍr in the Islamic tradition. The Muslim World, 83/3-4: 279-294.
Pradines, S. and Sher R. K. (2016) Fāṭimid gardens: Archaeological and historical perspectives. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 79/3: 1-30.
Rabbat, N. O. (2004) A brief history of green spaces in Cairo. in Bianca S. and Jodidio, P. (eds.), Cairo: Revitalising a Historic Metropolis. Geneva: The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 43-53.
Raphael, K. and Amitai, R. (2023) Bridges and roads to Mamluk Gaza and beyond. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 54: 133-180.
Rayne, L. (2020) Early Islamic water management in the hinterland of Raqqa. in Lawrence, D., Altaweel, M. and Graham P. (eds.), New Agendas in Remote Sensing and Landscape Archaeology in the Near East, Studies in Honour of Tony J. Wilkinson. Archaeopress, 305-320.
Sadan, J. (1976) Le Mobilier au porches orient medieval. Leiden: Brill.
Schimmel, A. (1994) Deciphering the signs of God: A phenomenological approach to Islam. SUNY.
Schimmel, A. (2003) Islam and the wonders of Creation: The Animal Kingdom. London: al-Furqan.
Sharon, M. (1966) An Arabic inscription from the time of the Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, BSOAS 29: 367-72.
Shehada, H. A. (2013) Mamluks and Animals Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam. Leiden: Brill.
Shoshan, B. (2011) Mini-dramas by the water: On irrigation rights and disputes in Fifteenth-Century Damascus. in Roxani, E.M. et al. (eds.), Historians of the Middle East: Studies in Middle Eastern Society, Economy and Law in Honor of A. L. Udovitch. Brill, 233-244.
Silverstein, A. J. (2007) Postal Systems in the pre-modern Islamic World. Cambridge University Press.
Stowasser, Karl (trans.) (2002) The Book of Exhortations and Useful Lessons in Dealing with Topography and Historical Remains. Brill.
Sussman, V. (2017) Late Roman to Late Byzantine/Early Islamic Period Lamps in the Holy Land: The Collection of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Archeopress
Walker, B. J. (2017) The struggle over water: Evaluating the ‘Water Culture’ of Syrian peasants under Mamluk rule. in Ben-Bassat, Y. (ed.) Amalia Levanoni Festschrift. Leiden: Brill, 287-310.
Wittfogel, K. A. (1957) Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Primary Sources
al-ʿAjlūnī, Abū al-Fidāʼ Ismāʿīl al-Shāfiʿī (1087-1161/1667-1749), Taḥrīk al-Silsila fī-mā yataʻallaqu bial-zalzalah (Amman: Dar Ibn al-Jawzi, 1425/2004).
al-Aṣbahānī, Abū al-Shaykh (274-369/887-979), Kitāb al-ʿaẓamah [The Book of the Sublime/God’s Majesty] ed. Muṣṭafá ʻĀshūr (Cairo: Maktabat al-Quran, 1409/1990).
Ibn Abī Ḥajala al-Tilmisanī (725-776/1325-1375), Sukkardān al-Sulṭān [al-Malik al-Nāṣir] ed. Muḥammad al-Ḥuǧairī (Beirut: Dār al-Fārābī/Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022).
Ibn al-Baytar (593-646/1197-1248) see A. M. Cabo-González, Ibn al-Bayṭār, in Encyclopaedia of Islam Three Online (2018). Ibn Faḍl Allah al-ʿUmari, Shihab al-Dīn Ahmad (700-750/1301-1349), Masalik al-Absar fi mamlik al-amsar ed. K. Jaburi (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 2010).
Ibn Fahd al-Ḥalabi, Maḥmūd ibn Salmān (644-725/1246-1325), Ḥusn al-tawassul fī ṣināʿat al-tarassul [(The Excellence of Achievement in the Art of Letter Writing)] (Baghdad, 1980).
Ibn al-Furāt, Nāṣir al-Dīn Muūammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm (735-807/1334-1405). Tāʾrīkh al-duwwal wal-mulūk [David Cook (trans.), Baybars’ Successors: Ibn al-Furāt on Qalāwūn and al-Ashraf (Routledge, 2020).]
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalani, Shihab al-Dīn Ahmad b. ʿAli (773-852/1372-1449), al-Zahr al-naḍir fī khāl al-Khaḍir (Kuwait, 1425\2004).
Ibn Iyās, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Ḥanafī (852-930/1448-1524). Badāʾiʿ al-zuhūr fī waqāʾiʿ al-duhūr [Die Chronik des Ibn Ijas (The Amazing Flowers about the Events of the Times)] ed. M. Mustafa (Cairo, Dar al-Kutub,1429/2008) 5 vol.
Ibn Kathīr, Abū al-Fida Ismāʿīl (701-774/1301-1373). al-Bidāya wa-al-nihāya ed. ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī (Cairo: Hajar, 1998).
Ibn Kathīr, Abū al-Fida Ismāʿīl (701-774/1301-1373). Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ ed. B. M. Ibrahim (Cairo, 2001).
Ibn Naẓīf al-Ḥamawī, Abū al-Faḍāʾil Muḥammad b. ʿAlī (650/1250). al-Tāʾrīkh al-Manṣūrī: Talkhīs al-kashf wal-bayān fī ḥawādith al-zamān (AH 595-631) [David Cook (trans.), Ibn Naẓīf’s World-History Al-Tāʾrīkh al-Manṣūrī (Routledge, 2021).]
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Abū Bakr (691-751/ 1292-1350), Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda wa-manshūr wilāyat al-ʿlm wal-irāda ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥman b, al-Qaʾid (Dar ʿĀlam al-Fawaʾid, 2011).
Ibn Taymiyya, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm al-Ḥaranī (661-728/1263-1328). Kitāb al-ziyāra ed. Sayf al-Dīn al-Kātib (Beirut: Maktabat al-hayat, 1400/1980).
Ibn Taymiyya, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalim al-Ḥaranī (661-728/1263-1328). al-Ḥisba fī al-islām au waẓīfat al-ḥukūma al-islāmiyya (Beirut: Dar al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya, 1992),
Ibn Waḥshiyah, Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Kasdānī (318/930-931). al-Filāḥa al-nabaṭiyya [L’Agriculture Nabateenne tradution en arabe attribuée à Ibn Waḥšiyya (IV/Xe siècle)] ed. T. Fahd (Damas: IF, 1995).
al-Maqrīzī, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī (766/1364-845/1441). al-Maqāṣid al-saniyyah li-maʿrifat al-aǧsām al-maʿdiniyyah ed. Fabian Käs (Leiden: Brill, 2015).
al-Maqrīzī, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī (766/1364-845/1441). al-Sulūk li-maʿrifat duwal al-mulūk eds. M. M. Ziyāda and ʿAshur (Cairo: Matbaʿat Dār al-Kutub, 1934-73; 1427/2007).
al-Muqaddasī, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Bashsharī (completed his book 375-378/985-988). Aḥsan al-taqasim fī maʿrifat al-aqalim ed. De Goeje (BGA 3, Leiden, 1906/1967).
Qurʾān= The Koran Interpreted - a Translation by A. J. Arberry (London: George Allen and Unwin; London; 1955).
al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥman (849-911/1445-1505). Kashf al-Ṣalṣalah ʿan waṣf al-zalzalah ed. Abd al-Rahman A. al-Fariwani (al-Madina, 1404/1984).
al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥman (849-911/1445-1505). al-Hayʾa al-sanīya fī al-hayʾa al-sunnīya (Beirut, 2006).
Nāsir-i Khusraw (1004-ca. 1088), Book of travels trans. Wheeler M. Thackston Jr. (Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 2001).
Usama Ibn Munqidh (488-584/1095-1188), Kitāb al-ʿIʾtibār trans. Philip K. Hitti, An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh (New York, reprinted Columbia University Press, 2000).
Published
2026-05-01
Section
Articles
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The contributor(s) (authors) warrant that the entire work is original and unpublished; it is submitted only to this Journal and all text, data, figures/tables or other illustrations included in this work are completely original and unpublished, and these have not been previously published or submitted elsewhere in any form or media whatsoever.
- The contributor(s) warrant that the work contains no unlawful or libelous statements and opinions and liable materials of any kind whatsoever, does not infringe on any copyrights, intellectual property rights, personal rights or rights of any kind of others, nor contains any plagiarized, fraudulent, improperly attributed materials, instructions, procedures, information or ideas that might cause any harm, damage, injury, losses or costs of any kind to person or property.
- The contributor(s) retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- Geography Research Forum may disseminate the content of the publications and publications’ Meta data in text, image, or other print and electronic formats to providers of research databases (e.g. EBSCO, GeoBase, JSTOR) to facilitate publications' exposure.
